Locke and Load (2 page)

“Rojas is in prison,” Knight stated.

“Yeah.” His daughter nodded, squeezing her arm before releasing her. “Being in close proximity to Cage is no longer dangerous to his health. It’s safe. You’re both safe.”

Nikki snorted. She couldn’t help it. Her friends meant well, but were so misinformed. “You don’t know Rojas. Bars mean nothing. His reach is long.”

She’d once foolishly thought the same thing. God, she’d been wrong. So wrong. And people had died because of it.

Because of her.

“You can’t keep living in fear,” Sam said quietly.

She lifted her chin and held his gaze. “I don’t. I’m perfectly fine. Have
been
perfectly fine since you and Lisa helped me take the monster down. As long as I avoid the same state Cage is in.”

Lisa stepped close again. “You don’t seriously believe the threats Santiago made when he was arrested, about killing your ex if you went anywhere near him, do you?”

“Absolutely,” she replied without hesitation. “You have no idea what that monster is capable of. I once made the mistake of doubting him...” She sucked in a breath and blew it out slow as the image of children at gunpoint flashed through her mind. “Never again.”

“Cage deserves to know the truth.” Her boss spoke up. “What about the hell he’s in?”

She blinked. Hell? “What hell? He’s happily married. He moved on. You know that. You all know that. You were the ones who helped me track him down when I was freed.” A quick use of TJ’s cyber sanctuary two years ago had pinpointed Cage…and his marriage license to a pretty model.

Any shred of hope she’d harbored of reconciling had died that day. Considering Rojas’ threat, though, it was for the best.

It kept her away, and Cage safe.

“But you didn’t talk to him,” her stubborn boss stated. “You both need closure.”

“Not at the expense of his life.”

There. She said it. Couldn’t be more blunt.

A frown creased Lisa’s brow. “Santiago Rojas is in prison. His cartel dismantled. The man has no power over you anymore, Nikki. You need to breathe. To start living.”

“I have. I’ve even been dating. You know that, too.“

“Yeah, Sam’s friend, but it’s not serious.”

“Because we didn’t want serious.” Hell, she hadn’t even wanted to date, but her friends were worried about her. So she’d gone down the therapy road and, okay, it had helped. A lot. Enough for her to go out on a few dates. Then Sam had introduced his SEAL buddy, Rook. The handsome, laidback cowboy had been so even-keeled she’d felt instantly at ease around the man. He never pressured. Let her take the lead. There was no pity or possession in his gaze or touch. Just friendship, and lately, on occasion, desire, which turned them into friends with a few benefits.

“He’s leaving Virginia and returning to Texas,” Sam stated, gaze matching his contrite tone.

“I know. He dropped his packet, and is retiring from the SEALs to help his brother.” She found it very admirable and selfless. He was a great guy, and she would miss his friendship, but his absence didn’t leave a big gaping hole in her heart like Cage.

They’d parted four years ago, and it still hurt like hell. But it would hurt a lot worse if he was dead.

“Look, Nikki.” Her friend’s reassuring touch was back on her arm. “If you’re really worried about Cage’s safety, then I’ll take this assignment.”

“No,” her quick protest echoed that of Lisa’s husband and father.

Yes, she was worried Santiago had Cage under surveillance and her presence could put her ex-fiancé’s life in danger. Hell, it terrified her. But so did the thought of her friend and unborn child in close proximity to anthrax.

Forcing the tension from her face, she placed her hand over Lisa’s and hoped to appear relaxed. “Thanks. I appreciate it, but I’ll be okay. I’ve been living with this fear for so long, it’s tough to shake. Still, it’s time to come out from underneath its oppression.”

Lisa pulled her in for a quick hug. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. You deserve to move on and be happy, but first, you have to face your past.”

She pulled out of the embrace and nodded, but had absolutely no intention of telling Cage the truth. In this case, the saying was wrong…it would not set him free.

Sam cupped her shoulder and squeezed. “I’d go in your place if I wasn’t working that embezzlement case with Brooke.”

Her throat heated. Damn…she was blessed with great friends.

“It’s okay,” she reassured with a grin. “I’ll be fine. But thanks.”

Sam studied her a moment, then nodded. “Okay. Good luck,” he said, releasing her shoulder to grab his wife’s hand. “We’re just a phone call away.”

“Yes, call if you need anything, or just want to…you know, talk.” Lisa’s warm gaze bored into her.

Yep, she had really good friends.

“Will do.” She watched the couple disappear into TJ’s sanctuary. She had no damn idea how she’d get through the mission, but failure wasn’t an option.

“You aren’t going to tell Cage, are you?” Her boss leaned his long frame against the counter and folded his arms across his chest, waiting for her answer.

“No. You’ll have to trust me, it would do more harm than good.”

After a beat of silence, he unfolded his arms and nodded once. “I wouldn’t be sending you if I didn’t trust you, Nicole. But you have to trust me, too. Coming clean will purge some of the darkness eating at you.”

“I know.” And she did. She really did. Each time she’d opened up to her therapist about an incident from her captivity, it felt as if she’d shed an invisible weight from her shoulders and peeled back a dark cloak shrouding her psyche.

It was liberating. But…hard. As. Hell.

Reaching for the coffee pot, he poured coffee to the brim. “There are no known associates of Rojas in Jacksonville.”

She reeled back and blinked at her boss. “How do you know?”

“I’ve had a few friends checking for me. And TJ’s been running facial recognition from the publi—well, it’s better you don’t know.” A ghost of a smile curved his lips. “He’ll continue to run it and alert you immediately if there’s a hit.”

Apprehension loosened its grip on her gut just a bit. “That’s good to know. Thank you.”

If she had the “eye in the sky”—as the hacker dubbed it—helping her, then she just might be able to concentrate on her current mission and not worry about her past.

“I’d better get going.” She glanced at the clock on the far wall. “I have fifteen minutes to meet the jet.”

Her boss turned to face her, coffee in hand. “Keep in touch.” he said, holding her gaze until she nodded, then he strode toward the cyber sanctuary.

Although she’d love to follow him and the others, Nikki swiped her navy backpack from a hook on the wall, then rushed out the door, determined to wrap up the murder investigation and get the hell out of Florida as soon as possible.

Seeing Cage again was going to hurt. And suck. Big time. But she’d learned long ago life was unfair.

Why should today be any different?

D
etective Cage Burnett scoured the dock in Jacksonville’s warehouse district just as he had every day for the last two weeks, ever since the murder of his partner and best friend, Detective Drew Johnson. The only lead was poor footage from a warehouse security camera corroded from the salted air. Lack of evidence brought him here daily, fueling his desire to find something…
anything
that would move the damn case forward.

His insides twisted into a tight knot, and he fought to contain the bile racing up his throat as he stared at the dark stain on the pier by his feet. A stain made by the blood that had seeped out of the hole in Drew’s head.

The image of his friend’s death-stare flashed through his mind, and the unrelenting band, squeezing his chest, restricting his breathing, had only happened once before…because of
her
.

Drew had helped him through back then.

Who would help him now?

“Find anything?”

He blinked at his new partner. Detective Brian “Jersey” Delaney had just transferred to Jacksonville from New Jersey almost two weeks ago. Similar to him in height and build, the northerner differed in other ways. The most noticeable wasn’t his accent or lighter coloring. It was the detective’s ready smile. Cage had just started to find his again when Drew had been murdered. Any lightness that had managed to creep into his demeanor was now buried with his friend at Saint Mary’s Cemetery.

He shook off his dour thoughts and focused on Jersey. “No. Nothing. You?”

Light brown hair turned golden by the sun, the Jersey cop cast a long shadow across the dock. Still in the assessment stage with his new partner, Cage figured the best way to get a true read was to gage the guy’s actions during pursuits or under gunfire.

In the short time Delaney had been in Jacksonville, they’d been through both and, so far, his new partner had done well. But it would take more than a good collar and a handful of assists for Cage to form an opinion just yet.

“No. I haven’t found anything either.”

They both stared silently at the pier. The chalk outline was no longer visible thanks to the severity of several storms since that fateful night. Self-disgust rushed through Cage’s body with the force of a Category 3. He widened his stance and braced for the recurring onslaught of guilt. He should’ve been there with his buddy that night. Drew hadn’t deserved to die alone with a bullet between the eyes.

What the hell had his partner been doing here anyway? None of their cases had anything to do with the docks.

At least, not that he knew of. It didn’t make sense. Had Drew gotten a lead and didn’t call him in?

A movement to the right had their hands automatically reaching for their weapons and their bodies twisting to the sound. Shadows from the warehouse gave way to a figure in a black hoody. Hands in his pockets, head down, the guy rounded the side of the building and stepped into the open.

He was no security guard.

“Jacksonville PD. We have a few questions for you,” Cage stated, moving closer.

The man stilled, lifting his head enough to reveal a dark gaze bouncing from him to Jersey. He could feel the tension coiling in the man’s limbs.
Ah, hell
. The guy was going to run. No sooner had the thought emerged when the figure took off in a sprint down the dock toward the parking lot at the end.

Dammit.

“Don’t shoot. I want him alive,” he told his new partner as they set off in pursuit. 

Finally, they would have someone to question. More importantly, maybe they’d get some answers.

“Shit…that guy’s fast.” Jersey glanced sideways at him during their chase. “You sure you don’t want to nick his leg? Slow his ass down a little?”

Ah, hell….

“No. I’d rather spend time in interrogation, not the ER.” Although, whoever the person was, he moved fast. A little longer and the guy would be out of their damn reach.

Just as Cage was warming to Delaney’s suggestion, the figure passed the end of the warehouse and ran right into a backpack someone swung from the side of the building. The perp doubled over, then fell forward, face-planting on the dock.

Hard.

“Did you see that?” His partner snickered. “Damn, that was sweet. Who in the world stopped him? Can you tell?”

With the sun glinting off a metal storage shed, obstructing his view as they neared, Cage was momentarily blinded. “No.”

Squinting, he managed to make out an image.
Rivera?
Why had the captain stopped by? Must be important for his boss to leave the precinct during a crisis. He glanced past Rivera, but the sun and shadows only gave a glimpse of a backpack-toting silhouette with a pair of shapely legs. Surprise washed through Cage’s body.

Damn.

A
woman
had stopped the guy.

He lifted a hand to shield his eyes and, a moment later, a good portion of the sea air shot through his lungs. No way in hell. He stopped dead while
Jersey continued to move forward.

Nikki Briggs?

His hand dropped to thwack his thigh.
Can’t be
. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. Too much stress. It was the only explanation. His mind had to be playing tricks. But when he reopened his eyes and moved to where the sun no longer hindered his vision, he caught a better glimpse of the familiar brunette standing with her back to him.

His heart slammed to a stop. He’d know those curves anywhere. It wasn’t an illusion.

She was real.

Memories swarmed, battering him, busting open the scar around his heart, resurrecting a pain as intense as if today had been the day from his past. The day the woman he’d fallen in love with, had given his heart to—fucking diamond ring to—had grown bored and left him for another man.

“Detective Delaney, this is Nicole Locke.” Rivera introduced Jersey to Cage’s ex-fiancée. “The mayor wants her to help out with this case.”

Locke? Not Briggs? 

“Nice to meet you, Nicole Locke.” His partner shook her hand and smiled. “You’re off to a good start in the help department. That pier therapy was a take-down for the books.” The northerner motioned to the hooded man still moaning at their feet.

Cage took a moment to let his gaze run over the woman’s memorable appearance. Loaded with enough curves to boast an hourglass figure, despite her five-foot-eight-inch frame, Locke managed to make her short-sleeve, green wrap-type dress come across designer chic. Hair now longer, her braid fell to the middle of her back, and his mind immediately conjured up a memory of her naked in the moonlight, the silky dark brown curtain stopping just above the beauty mark on the middle of her right shoulder blade.

He cursed his body’s heated reaction to the cheater and forced his feet forward, unintentionally noting the length of her braid suggested her hair would now cover the mark his lips had once worshiped.

As he neared the group, she stiffened and slowly turned to face him. His pulse instantly picked up speed. He didn’t know what he’d expected—dread, guilt, maybe even remorse on her beautiful heart-shaped face, but the stark terror shooting through her brown eyes, draining the color from her features, caught him completely off guard. A second later, her gaze turned unreadable and had him doubting he’d seen any emotion in the first place.

“Hello, Cage.” She hesitated before holding out her hand while the others looked on.

The woman’s hotness didn’t only pertain to her smokin’ body; those gorgeous cocoa eyes could root a man to the spot. Luckily, there was enough bad blood between them to keep him immune.

“It’s Detective Burnett,” he corrected, ignoring her hand. “Mrs.?”

Pain shot through her gaze, but a second later, the hurt was gone, and once again, he questioned his eyesight.

She lowered her hand. “It’s Ms.”

He didn’t know how he felt about that, certainly couldn’t be relief. Just seeing her again ripped through his impenetrable wall of control. The unknown emotion tampering with his pulse was immediately squashed. He didn’t have time for feelings.

Or Jersey’s questioning gaze.

“Well,
Ms. Locke
, why don’t you and Delaney take care of this guy.” He paused to nod at the man his partner was patting down. “While I have a word with my boss.”

A deep frown creased the captain’s brow, but Rivera followed Cage without question. When they stepped far enough out of earshot, he turned to his boss, trying hard to keep the wall around his control.

“Tell them to send somebody else.”

He didn’t care who the mayor’s office sent to work on the task force, just as long as it wasn’t
her
.

“Who? The aide?” The captain’s gaze snapped in her direction.

“Yes.”

The last time he’d seen the cheating woman had been four years ago in Miami. She’d ripped out his heart, then disappeared. He had absolutely no desire to work with the untrustworthy female.

Especially on this case.

“She’s a former NIO, Burnett. First Lieutenant Nicole Locke, and she’s on loan from the governor,” Rivera informed in his
I-don’t-give-a-damn
voice.

Former Naval Intelligence Officer? He knew she was former Navy, but Naval Intelligence?

The invisible band squeezing Cage’s chest tightened with brutal force. When he’d known her, she’d been analyst Nikki Briggs.

Great. Just great. Not only was the woman a cheat, she was a liar too. Why not? They went hand in hand. Apparently, whatever they’d had together had been nothing but a fucking farce.

He cleared his mind and the rest of the captain’s words sunk in. “She’s on loan from the governor?”

The woman was moving up in the world. She’d left him for some Navy dude, and probably dumped that poor shmuck for a businessman. Now, she
worked
for the governor. Locke had proven her prowess at trading up.

Who was next on her ladder? A senator?

“Yes.” Rivera nodded, his dark gaze boring into Cage.

It took him a second to realize which question his boss had answered.

“So I suggest you put aside your differences, suck it up, and play nice. You’re lucky I’m even letting you on this case, Burnett. If our manpower wasn’t stretched so damn thin working with Homeland and the CDC on this quarantine thing, you’d sit this one out. As it is, I need you. But, this isn’t about you. It’s about Johnson.” Rivera pinned him with a hard stare. “Remember him? Your dead partner? Murdered two weeks ago? This is about finding his killer.”

Guilt erased the anger clouding Cage’s mind. The captain was right. This wasn’t about his past with the lieutenant or the anthrax problem that shut down a financial building in the business district. It was about his late partner and friend who’d had Cage’s back both professionally for the last two years and personally since the academy.

Drew had even been his best man when Cage had foolishly thought marriage to a blonde model would make him forget the analyst…and was there for him again when he’d realized the mistake and filed for divorce a year later. After that, it’d been his late partner who’d suggested Cage transfer up north.

“Johnson was married to the mayor’s sister-in-law,” Rivera reminded. “He wants this case solved yesterday. So if Mayor Thornhurst asks his friend the governor for help and Governor Patterson decides to put his eighty-two-year-old mother on the taskforce—we will work with her, too. You got that?”

Cage straightened his shoulders and firmed his resolve. He would do whatever he needed to bring down the person or people involved in his buddy’s murder. No matter the cost. Even working with his untrustworthy ex-fiancée. It was the least he could do for Drew’s wife.

He nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Now, let’s get started.”

With his resolution newly reset, he buried his emotions and walked back to the others.

“I found out why Mr. Zippy was running.” Jersey held the handcuffed perpetrator with one hand and lifted a bag of weed with the other.

Cage’s heart sank. Narcotics.
That’s why the guy ran?
Damn. He was hoping to get some answers about Drew’s murder.

“Read him his rights.”

“Already did.” Delaney nodded.

“Good. I’ll take him to the precinct. You can question him later,” Rivera said. “Show Ms. Locke around. She has a copy of the case, but you two can bring her up to speed.”

Which wasn’t much. Practically not even worth a folder.

“Sure thing,” his partner replied when Cage remained silent.

He watched the captain walk the suspect to his car, and although the urge to stare at the parking lot and give Locke the silent treatment held infinite appeal, it wasn’t his style. He returned his attention to the former NIO. “What exactly did the captain tell you?”

She blinked, and he noted some of the tension left her shoulders. “Not much. He said two weeks ago, Detective Johnson was off duty and found shot to death on this dock.”